ChatGPT disrupts Kenyan academic ghostwriting industry

The rise of ChatGPT has significantly disrupted a long-standing informal industry in Kenya, where thousands of young professionals and students earned livelihoods as academic ghostwriters for students in the United States and the United Kingdom.

At its peak, it is estimated that at least 40,000 Kenyans were involved in this transnational market, providing essays and academic assignments for fees ranging from small amounts to $70 per task. The industry relied on individuals with high English proficiency and familiarity with academic citation styles such as APA, MLA, and Chicago.

Teresios Bundi, a former public health student, exemplifies this shift. After discovering the business in 2011, he built a company that employed other students. However, the arrival of generative AI in 2022 provided students with a rapid, free alternative, causing the lucrative market to collapse within months and forcing digital workers to seek new ways to remain relevant.